Symbol 29:1

29:1 ·
The wheel cross, sun cross, Odin's cross or Woden's
cross. Nordic
Odin and Teutonic Wuotan or Woden was the supreme god of the Nordic religion before Christianity. Odin
was the god of art, culture, warfare, and the dead; depicted as an
old, one-eyed man with two ravens as his intelligence agents and
messengers.
The structure
is one of the first
non-pictorial graphs to appear when humankind was on the threshold of
the Bronze Age. It is common on rock carvings. It appears in ancient
Egypt, China, pre-Columbian America, and the Near East. From the facts
available it seems as if
is associated with the
wheel, not so much with its invention as with its revolutionary effect
on the existing society. In ancient China this sign was associated
with thunder,
power, energy,
head, and
respect.
In ancient Babylon the similar structure
symbolized the sun god, Shamash.
When the first ideographic writing systems were developed,
was included among the signs. It appears in the earliest
systems of writing used by the Egyptians, Hittites, Cretians, Greeks,
Etruscans, and Romans.
In ancient Greece
signified a sphere or globe. It was also used as a natal
chart pattern in ancient astrology. In modern astrology it is the
sign for the planet Earth, the astrological element earth, and Fortuna, the Part of Fortune, an important position in
the natal chart related to progress and hindrances in the material
aspect of an individual's life. (Compare with
in Group 39.)
In astronomy it is also used as a symbol for the planet
Earth, and is therefore synonymous with
.
It is easy to trace a shift in this sign's meaning over time.
In earliest times
was a symbol for the highest
power, the sun,
and its counterpart, the king. It represented power and
control. This meaning changed so that
more and
more adopted the meaning of
and
, i.e. the points of the compass, the earth, and the land.
As has been its custom the Christian Church has included this
ancient pagan sign among the crosses of its symbolism. It is known as
the gamma cross,
the Roman Catholic cross, the consecration cross and the
inauguration cross. At the inauguration of a church, the bishop, using
blessed water or oil, draws the wheel cross at 12 different places on
the church walls. Its use as a halo or gloria, i.e. the spiritual power or energy that holy
persons emanate, is associated with its original meaning as a sign of
power. During the Middle Ages the alchemists used
to signify copper alloys (from the Venus sign,
,
which also meant copper) and sometimes yleaster or stardust, possibly also meteorite
iron.
appears in about 15 modern ideographic
systems. In some US meteorological systems it has been used to
indicate that visibility is worsened by fog or dust. In some British meteorological systems it can
mean a solar halo,
i.e. a ring around the sun. In modern ideography
is often related to visibility and signalling. Thus on modern German
maps it can stand for radar station.
In the US, British, Swedish and French hobo sign systems we find
that
(as well as
and
) means here you will find food, work, and
money, or here live generous people.



